David Perry: Look at the facts when voting on Base2

A small lodge of 37 rooms is proposed at the corner of Main and Monarch Streets. The rooms will be approximately 175 square feet, smaller than most college dorm rooms and less than half the size of the average room at the Limelight. The building that would host this small lodge has the exact same dimensions (height and mass) as zoning would allow if it were a commercial building such as a bank. Same building size, different purposes.

We are a community of passionate individuals and varied opinions, but one goal that I believe most of us can agree on is that we all want Aspen to be the best ski town in the world. And ski towns need hotels. Consider the following list of defunct lodges: Alpine Lodge, Aspen Cortina Lodge, Aspen Manor, Aspen Park, Meadows, L’Auberg, Bavarian Inn, Beaumont Inn (Crestahaus), Bell Mountain Lodge, Boomerang Lodge, Brass Bed Inn, Buckhorn Lodge, Christiania, Copper Horse, Fireside Lodge, Heatherbed, Highlands Inn, Holland House, Hotel Lenado, Inverness Lodge, Little Red Ski Haus, Maroon Creek Lodge, Midnight B&B, Mountain House, North Star Lodge, Pomegranate Inn, Red Roof Inn, Skiers Chalet, T Lazy 7 and Ullr Lodge.

This list represents a portion of the 20 percent reduction in beds available for tourists to rent compared with the mid-1990s. Those of you who have lived here longer than our family (14th year here) will remember some of the lodges on this list as more than a name of a building that is gone or no longer operating. Each had its own history, and each one contributed to Aspen’s well-deserved reputation as the best ski town in the world, a place where the Aspen Idea was alive and well.

As we look forward to Aspen’s future and as the voters decide whether to allow a new lodge to be built, please look at the list of lost hotels and make up your own mind based on the facts.

David Perry

Chief operating officer, Aspen Skiing Co.